Tape guides, such as guide rollers, may be used to guide a tape along a tape path in a tape drive. Examples of guide rollers are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 7,261,250.
As tape moves between guide rollers, the tape may move up and down with respect to the guide rollers. To control this lateral tape movement, prior guide rollers have been provided with relatively tightly spaced flanges, such as flanges that are spaced apart by a distance that is about 0.0008 inches greater than the width of the tape. Such guide rollers, however, may result in excessive edge loading on the tape due to imperfections in guide roller flanges, the tape and/or the drive, for example, which may cause tape edges to buckle, wear, crease or even break.
Another prior tape drive having a short tape path has been provided with flangeless guide rollers. That tape drive, however, also includes a complicated skew angle mechanism incorporated into the corresponding head/actuator.